Revolutionary Anarchist Federation - Libcom

47 Pages·2007·1.66 MB·English

Love & Rage
Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
New York Local
Member Handbook
August 1997 H First Edition
Table of Contents
What is Love &Rage? 2 - 3
The Revolutionary Anarchist Tradition 4 - 9
History of Love &Rage 10 - 22
L&R Political Statement 23 - 34
L&RStructure
Demonstration to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Philadelphia,PA Bylaws &Conf. Decisionmaking 39 - 43
L&R Membership
Organizing in Locals 44 - 45
Introduction
Work Expectations &Dues Chart 46
This Members Handbook brings together
some of the basic documents necessary to
understand what it means to be a member
of Love & Rage. It is for new members
and older members alike to read and to
use as a resource and reference. New
members should read and discuss these
things with L&R members in the process
of deciding whetherto join the federation.
This is the first edition of this handbook;
it is esentially still a draft, and is only
applicable thusfar to the New York City
Love and Rage local. It is certainly
incomplete and unclear in spots. The
intention of this manual is to introduce
new members and potential members to
what Love & Rage is, what Love & Rage
does, where Love & Rage came from, and
how to get involved. Input and criticisms
from new members will shape future revi-
sions of this handbook, so please let oth-
ers know how useful this handbook is and
how it can be improved.
AZapatista reads Amor y Rabia
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 1
What is Love & Rage?
L
ove & Rage is an organization of revolutionary anarchists who As a federation, Love and Rage is composed of local groups in
are opposed to all forms of oppression, including capitalism, numerous cities and some individual members. We publish two news-
racism, patriarchy and the state. We are working for the cre- papers (one in English and one in Spanish in Mexico). We have three
ation of a multi-racial, anti-authoritarian, classless society. We work main areas of work that we coordinate together as a federation: Anti-
for a society based on mutual aid, voluntary cooperation, solidarity, Fascism, Anti-Police, and Anti-Poverty / Neo-Liberalism.
and collective economics. In our Anti-Fascist work we build anti-racist groups, campaigns
We live in an authoritarian society. We live in a capitalist system and direct action. We have actively participated in building the Anti-
where a tiny few make profits off of the misery and sweat of the vast Racist Action Network. We also mobilize efforts to counter the grow-
majority. This system needs to be destroyed. We also live in a society ing Religious Right and its patriarchal and oppressive agendas. We
where men dominate women, queers get bashed, and some people are have participated in mobilizations against Columbus Day celebra-
oppressed because they are of the “wrong” race. These injustices will tions; anti-Klan demonstrations throughout the Midwest, South and
not just disappear if capitalism is overthrown. Capitalism depends on East Coast; in mobilizations against Christian Right groups such as
white supremacy and male domination to function, but these systems Human Life International (HLI); and in mobilizations and campaigns
of everyday terror have lives of their own. Love and Rage attacks for reproductive freedom and against violence against women.
these systems of oppression because they are evil and because we We do Anti-Police work in varying ways. Some of us are
believe that smashing them will bring the whole system involved in Copwatch programs that confront the police on the beat
crashing down, too. and raise public opposition to the cops as they perform their dastard-
ly duties. Many of us are involved in specific police brutality cases,
REVOLUTION REQUIRES ORGANIZATION mobilizing public outrage against the cops and sup-
port for the victims, their families and communi-
Transforming a society based on domination to one based on ties. We do work against the police, not just against
equality requires a fight. Racism, sexism and class domina- police brutality. Police are agents of the state who pro-
tion cannot be reformed away because the powers tect the powerful and their property.
that be won’t voluntarily give up their Our Anti-Poverty / Neo-liberalism work has a feminist
wealth and comfort for others’freedom. perspective and focuses on fighting budget cuts to education
That’s why Love and Rage is a revolutionary and welfare, fighting workfare, and building campaigns
organization. for a living wage. We have also made international
Revolution is not the act of a leader or political party links, showing the connections between neo-liberal
seizing state power. It is a movement of millions acting to economic policies of privatization and austerity in
change their lives for the better. Such a movement will the US and in Third World countries, especially
inevitably be diverse and complex. The revolutionary chal- Mexico.
lenge is to build alliances among the many alienated, exploited Love and Rage has a branch in Mexico, called Amor y Rabia.
and oppressed parts of society in order to fight for change. Amor y Rabia is active in Mexico City, and also helped initiate a
What is the role of a revolutionary organization in this kind of Direct Solidarity Encampment in a village of Chiapas in Zapatista ter-
mass movement? Obviously, it should not aim to force the entire ritory. There they have helped open a women’s center, a libertarian
movement to conform to its ideology. That’s why Love and Rage does school, and a health clinic. Our US and Canadian members mobilize
not see itself as the organization that will “lead” a revolutionary material aid and political support for Amor y Rabia and for the Direct
movement. While we certainly put forward our politics and hope that Solidarity Encampment by building Direct Solidarity Committees.
our politics influence the direction of mass movements, we aim to The most important work Love and Rage members do is local
help build movements and to participate in them as equals with other organizing. Each member is expected to participate in mass organiz-
organizations and people who have different ideologies and strategies. ing. The bulk of our work is done locally in larger grassroots groups
Within mass movements we argue for the most democratic and mili- such as Anti-Racist Action, Student Liberation Action Movement,
tant politics possible, and we encourage struggle against all forms of Anarchist Black Cross, and other locally-based organizations and
oppression. campaigns. We believe in building sustainable, radical, democratical-
ly-run mass organizations.
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO The purpose of Love and Rage is to connect this local work to
similar efforts throughout the continent and to work for the most
Love and Rage began in 1989 as a continental anarchist newspaper democratic politics within local organizations. We can also help local
project and became a network of local groups in 1991. In 1993, the work by providing resources, ideas, a place to debate and develop
network become the Love &Rage Revolutionary Anarchist strategy, and organizers.
Federation with clear terms of membership and a commitment to Love and Rage is a directly democratic organization. Major deci-
developing a common politics. sions are made by the entire membership at bi-annual conferences.
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 2
Smaller decisions in between conferences are made by the Federation
Council, a delegate council composed of representatives of each Love
and Rage local group. Administrative activities are carried out by the
Federation Office and an elected Coordinating Committee. Open
debate is encouraged; we have no party line and no party bosses. We
are organized in this way because we believe that the structure of our
organization should reflect the kind of society we want to live in:
democratic, participatory, accountable, and anti-authoritarian.
GETTING INVOLVED
Love and Rage has two types of involvement: Member and Supporter.
Love and Rage members are active in building mass movements; par-
ticipating in the internal life of the organization; studying revolution-
ary history and theory; and promoting our revolutionary anarchist pol-
itics. People who, for whatever reason, can’t maintain a high level of
activity can join Love and Rage at the Supporter level. Supporters can
come to meetings, participate in internal debate, contribute financial-
ly, and work on projects of the organization, but do not have votes at
the continental conferences.
To become a member or a supporter you need to be endorsed by
two current members. If you are interested in joining but don’t know
two members, write the Federation Office or your local group and we
can help you out.
Creating a truly free society means building a grassroots move-
ment that fights all forms of oppression. It requires acting locally and
globally. It means fighting against injustice while creating a just soci-
ety now. If you are a part of this struggle and like what we have to say,
get in touch.H
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 3
The Revolutionary Anarchist Tradition
(Aslightly different version of this article, written by Chris become a serious revolutionary movement it must develop a whole
Day, originally appeared in Love &Rage, June / July 1996. new body of theory and analysis for confronting the new realities of
Some of the points in the article were controversial within the 21st century, and that will require the transcendence of various
the organization, as reflected by the fact that another L&R cherished anarchist prejudices. The revolutionary anarchism of the
member, Wayne Price, wrote a letter in response to the arti- future must be a living synthesis of all the useful thinking that has
cle, which was printed in the next issue of the paper. The been created in the course of the struggle for human freedom.
controversies in this article mirrored controversies over At the same time we have been guilty of not looking closely
internal documents circulating at the same time. Despite the enough at the debates within the anarchist movement of the past cen-
controversy, this piece is the best we have for laying out the tury. While the different currents defined by those debates are still an
historical tradition with which Love &Rage most closely inadequate foundation on which to build a new body of revolutionary
identifies. The version of the article printed here was edited theory, we are not the first group of anarchists to be deeply frustrated
to incorporate the criticisms and comments made about the by the deep structural problems of anarchism. In this sense we are part
original article. -the editor) of a revolutionary anarchist tradition — a small but vital current with-
in anarchism that has sought to learn new lessons from our defeats,
F
or most of this century the revolutionary struggle for human that has struggled to raise anarchist politics above the level of naive
liberation has stood in the shadow of the Bolshevik victory in moralism, that has confronted head on contradictions within anarchist
the Russian Revolution and the regime it established. The thinking, that has fought for tighter forms of organization, that has
Collapse of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe, repression of the sought to develop a coherent strategy for actually making an anarchist
Chinese democracy movement, and the electoral defeat of the revolution. Revolutionary anarchism speaks to the fundamental fail-
Sandinistas in 1989 revealed the decay within Marxism as a supposed ure of Marxism’s authoritarian reliance on the state as an instrument
ideology of human freedom. The ensuing collapse of much of the for revolutionizing society. But just as Marxism has been tested by
Marxist left created an opening for a renewal of the revolutionary pro- history and found wanting, so too has anarchism failed to deliver real
ject. human liberation. Therefore we must be particularly attentive to the
Love and Rage was the creation of a layer of mainly young anar- distinct current of revolutionary anarchist practice that has sought to
chists who were frustrated with the disorganization and lack of seri- confront these historic failures of anarchism. This article is an attempt
ous revolutionary politics within the anarchist movement. We were to trace the course of that current through anarchist history.
committed to building a serious revolutionary anarchist movement. This current has asserted itself most strongly when new histori-
While we came from a variety of political backgrounds and perspec- cal conditions have demanded a rethinking of past anarchist assump-
tives we did not collectively identify ourselves with any single tradi- tions. So at the beginning of this century the anarchist movement was
tion within anarchism. Surveying the various trends in anarchism still dominated by the theory of “propaganda of the deed.” Small anar-
(anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcha-feminism) as chist groups or individuals would carry out bombings or assassina-
well as the libertarian trends that did not identify themselves explicit- tions in the vain hope that by revealing the vulnerability of the system
ly as anarchist (council communism, the situationists) we did not see they would inspire the masses to rise up and throw off their chains.
any single current as answering all of our questions. Furthermore Anarcho-syndicalism was simultaneously a recognition of the futility
many of us drew considerable inspiration from the anti-authoritarian- of this approach and a turn towards the mass revolutionary potential
ism of the New Left of the 1960s, and from the new social movements of the increasingly insurgent workers movement that was chafing
that arose in the 70s and 80s. We also identified strongly with anti- under the largely middle-class leadership of the various socialist par-
colonial struggles for national liberation that, in spite of their author- ties. The early anarcho-syndicalists were roundly denounced by the
itarian organization, fundamentally challenged imperialism and raised rest of the anarchist movement for abandoning the “anarchist princi-
the hopes of hundreds of millions of people for a world without ples” of individualist terror.
oppression and exploitation. Similarly Love and Rage and the broader revolutionary anarchist
Not only were none of the already existing currents within anar- current of which it is part is a response to new conditions. The col-
chism satisfactory to us, but we understood that our vitality as an orga- lapse of the Soviet Union and with it the prestige of marxism as a the-
nization depended on an atmosphere of open debate and discussion. ory of human liberation created an opening for revolutionary anti-
This didn’t mean that as an organization we would be agnostic on authoritarian ideas. But the anarchist movement was too accustomed
every political question, but rather that our politics would be devel- to its role as the gadfly of the authoritarian left to break out of that role
oped through a process of collective practice and discussion. And this and put forward a positive vision of a new revolutionary movement.
is pretty much what has happened — Love and Rage has developed a Contemporary revolutionary anarchism is the effort to do that.
body of not always explicitly stated common politics by working In between the early anarcho-syndicalists and the collapse of the
together for so many years. Soviet Union, there have been a series of other expressions of the rev-
While our politics have remained consistently anti-authoritarian, olutionary anarchist impatience with anarchist orthodoxy.
Love and Rage has from its inception been defined by our disregard
for anarchist orthodoxies. This is a good thing. If anarchism is to MALATESTA
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 4
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarchist who spent half of his life in War I exposed in practice the limitations of certain aspects of the pre-
exile. His most important period of activism was during the first thir- vailing thinking within the anarchist movement. Anarchists partici-
ty years of the 20th century up to his death in 1932. While he partici- pated in many of these upsurges, but the most significant achievments
pated in a variety of groups and struggles his main significance was as were in Ukraine. When the Ukrainian anarchists summed up their
an agitator and propagandist. Malatesta didn’t so much break with experiences and called for some changes in the anarchist movement in
prevailing anarchist thinking as push it as far as it could go without a light of theme Malatesta defended the prevailing orthodoxy.
thorough critical re-examination. Malatesta’s writings on organization
are still crucial reading for all revolutionary anarchists. He was THE MAKHNOVCHINA
unabashedly pro-organization and divided the discussion of organiza-
tion into three parts: The Ukrainian Revolution is a seriously underappreciated chapter in
anarchist history. Unlike Spain where over 60 years of anarchist edu-
“organization in general as a principle of and condition of cational work had shaped the thinking of much of the Spanish peas-
social life today and in a future society; the organization of antry and proletariat, the Ukraine did not have a strong well organized
the anarchist movement; and the organization of the popu- anarchist movement when the February 1917 revolution toppled the
lar forces and especially of the working masses for resis- Russian Czar and opened up the whole Russian Empire, including
tance to government and capitalism...” Ukraine, to the pent-up revolutionary forces of peasant and worker
discontent.
Malatesta: Life and Ideas The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia on a program of Bread,
p. 84 (Freedom Press, 1984, London) Land and Peace. They obtained peace with the German and Austro-
Hungarian Empires through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which hand-
Malatesta argued for a sharp distinction between popular organiza- ed over Ukraine to the imperialists. The relatively small Ukrainian
tions like labor unions and organizations of the anarchist movement. anarchist movement seized the moment and built a revolutionary
In contrast to the mainstream of anarcho-syndicalism Malatesta rec- anarchist army around a nucleus of guerrilla partisans commanded by
ognized the inherently reformist character of the unions, even unions Nestor Makhno. The peasants were already seizing the land largely
with avowedly revolutionary programs, that grows out of their daily without the help of the anarchists. Makhno’s army defended their
struggle for modest improvements in the lives of the workers. He gains and argued for the voluntary collectivization of the land while
argued that anarchists should not hesitate to work within such organi- they fought the Austrians, the Germans, and the White armies of
zations, that it is precisely their openness to non-anarchists that makes Deniken and Wrangel. After defeating the first three the
them such fertile fields for anarchist agitation. Malatesta’s arguments Makhnovchina joined forces with the Bolshevik Red Army to defeat
laid the theoretical groundwork for the organization of the Iberian Wrangel. After the defeat of Wrangel the Bolsheviks turned around
Anarchist Federation (FAI), an organization of anarchist militants and crushed Mahkno’s army, retaking the Ukrainian lands they had
working within the larger popular movements. given away in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Malatesta was also critical of the attempts to claim that anar- Mahkno was openly contemptuous of the “dithering” and disor-
chism rested on a scientific foundation. He used his obituary of Peter ganization of most of the anarchist movement. While he didn’t let the
Kropotkin to polemicize against Kropotkin’s efforts in this direction. Bolsheviks off the hook for their crimes he correctly identified a num-
The claims of political ideologies (like Marxism) to scientific truth ber of the anarchist movement’s weaknesses that he saw as responsi-
have consistently had authoritarian implications. ble for the ease with which the Bolsheviks consolidated power.
Malatesta strove to ground anarchist activity in political reality. Mahkno’s two primary virtues as a revolutionary thinker are his lack
Unfortunately his writings remain trapped in a method of speculative of sentimentality and his willingness to radically reassess prevailing
politics that seems to dominate anarchist theory. There is a timeless- anarchist orthodoxies in light of actual experience. He describes the
ness to his arguments. That means that they can be easily applied to original military organization of the anarchists in Ukraine, the “free
the present. But it also means that they are not based on any sort of battalions”:
systematic investigation of the actual conditions then confronting the “It quickly transpired that that organization was
anarchist movement. His arguments would be as well reasoned in the powerless to survive internal provocations of every sort,
19th, 20th or 21st centuries, but they are a limited guide to practical given that, without adequate vetting, political or social, it
action precisely because of this timelessness. took in all volunteers provided only that they wanted to take
What is missing from Malatesta’s thinking is a dialectical up weapons and fight. This was why the armed units estab-
method. His conclusions are not based on investigation of the actual lished by that organization were treacherously delivered to
conditions within society (or within the anarchist movement) and they the enemy, a fact that prevented it from seeing through its
are not tested against the results of their application. Rather they flow historical mission in the fight against the foreign counter-
from a set of abstract principles and if they don’t coincide with cur- revolution. . . Elsewhere the practical requirements of the
rent reality eventually, the reasoning seems to go, reality will just have struggle induced our movement to establish an operational
to catch up. and organizational Staff to share the oversight of all the
The limits of Malatesta’s methodology come out most sharply fighting units. It is because of this practice that I find myself
only when he is finally confronted with a new current in the anarchist unable to subscribe to the view that revolutionary anarchists
movement that seeks to root its practice in a concrete analysis of the reject the need for such a Staff to oversee the armed revolu-
current conditions. The revolutionary upsurges in the wake of World tionary struggle strategically. I am convinced that any revo-
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 5
lutionary anarchist finding himself in the same circum- and innumerable sacrifices borne by the anarchists in the
stances as those I encountered in the civil war in the Ukraine struggle for libertarian communism, the anarchist move-
will, of necessity, be impelled to do as we did. If in the ment remains weak despite everything, and has appeared,
course of the coming authentic social revolution, there are very often, in the history of working class struggles as a
anarchists who rebut these organizational principles, then in small event, an episode, and not an important factor.
our movement we will have only empty chatterers or dead- “This contradiction between the positive and
weight, harmful elements who will be rejected in short incontestable substance of libertarian ideas, and the miser-
order.” able state in which the anarchist movement vegetates, has
“On Defense of the Revolution” its explanation in a number of causes, of which the most
from The Struggle Against the State and Other Essays important, the principal, is the absence of organizational
by Nestor Mahkno (AK Press, 1996, San Francisco) principles and practices in the anarchist movement.”
Mahkno understood that revolutionary anarchists had to operate in the The introduction goes on to say that :
real world of imperfect circumstances. If anarchist ideas were to mean
anything they had to be applied in the struggles of the day. And if they “(I)t is nevertheless beyond doubt that this disorganization
were inadequate to the tasks of the struggle then they needed to be derives from some defects of theory: notably the false inter-
modified. pretation of the principle of individuality in anarchism; this
theory being too often confused with the absence of all
THE PLATFORMISTS responsibility. The lovers of assertion of ‘self,’solely with a
view to personal pleasure, obstinately cling to the chaotic
Unfortunately the Bolshevik victory in Russia gave their authoritarian state of the anarchist movement, and refer in its defense to
politics enormous prestige amongst revolutionary minded people all the innumerable principles of anarchism and its teachers.”
around the world. Huge sections of the anarchist movement went over
to Bolshevism in country after country. And it wasn’t necessarily the The Platform had three section. The first or “General” section was a
worst elements that left either. In many cases the anarchists who basic exposition of revolutionary anarchist thinking concerning the
remained true to their principles were the most dogmatic, the least process of revolution. The second “Constructive” section elaborated
interested in what actually worked in practice, the most unconcerned an anarchist program for the reorganization of industry, agriculture,
with making anarchism relevant to the majority of humanity. Outside and consumption. This section also addressed the question of how the
of Spain and Latin America where the mass character of the anarchist gains of the revolution would be defended by a revolutionary army.
movement delayed this development, anarchism was rapidly replaced The final “Organizational” section called for the creation of a
by Bolshevism as the “revolutionary wing” of the workers movement. “General Union of Anarchists” on the basis of four organizational
In the face of Bolshevik hegemony the anarchist movement became principles:
increasingly sectarian and oddly resistant to any challenges to its the-
oretical orthodoxies. 1. Theoretical Unity
In the face of military disaster Nestor Mahkno drew the appro- 2. Tactical Unity or the Collective Method of Action
priate lessons and reorganized his forces to go on to beat the imperi- 3. Collective Responsibility, and
alist and White armies in Ukraine. After his defeat at the hands of the 4. Federalism
Red Army he and many of his Russian and Ukrainian comrades were
forced into exile in Western Europe. There they found the same dog- The Platform was widely attacked within the anarchist movement in
matism and disorganization that had doomed the anarchists in the terms that would be familiar to those who have followed the contro-
Russian Revolution. versies around Love and Rage. The Platformists were accused of
Just as they had sought to apply the lessons of the defeat of the being crypto-Leninists and of attempting to dominate the whole anar-
“free battalions” in building a revolutionary army, Mahkno and his chist movement in their effort to build an effective organization. The
comrades in exile sought to apply the political lessons they had drawn Platformists were pushed to the margins of the anarchist movement
from their experience and to create a new kind of revolutionary anar- and their efforts to build an organization failed. But the ideas of the
chist organization — one capable of the profound organizational tasks Platformists lived on and a variety of Platformist groups have come
involved in carrying a revolution through to victory. Their call for the and gone over the years. Two Platformist organizations that are cur-
formation of such an organization was a pamphlet entitled “The rently operating are the Anarchist Communist federation in England
Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists.” The and the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland.
Platform, as it came to be known was published in 1926 and quickly The political program of the Platformists was not as much of a
became an object of controversy within the anarchist movement. break with anarchist orthodoxies as their organizational principles
Reading its opening paragraphs it is not hard to see why: which Malatesta described as “the absolute negation of any individual
independence and freedom of initiative and action.” In response to
“It is very significant that, in spite of the strength and incon- Malatesta’s charges Mahkno noted how the absence of the spirit of
testably positive character of libertarian ideas, and in spite collective responsibility had resulted in the chronic disorganization of
of the forthrightness and integrity of anarchist positions in the anarchist movement and its effective abdication of its revolution-
facing up to the social revolution, and finally the heroism ary responsibilities. The sharp exchange between Malatesta and
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 6
Mahkno should be required reading for all anarchists today. as a functioning national organization. Under these conditions of
(Fortunately it has recently become available again in English with repression powerful tendencies towards reformism asserted them-
the publication of The Anarchist Revolution, a collection of selves within the scattered anarchist movement. The FAI brought
Malatesta’s later writing by Freedom Press.) Malatesta’s criticisms of together the most militant and determined revolutionaries in Spain
the Platformists are ponderous and abstract, making no reference to under conditions of intense repression. The FAI was composed of
the actual state of the anarchist movement. In contrast Mahkno’s small affinity groups federated locally, regionally, and nationally
response raises the difficult questions that anarchism had up to that (including also Portuguese groups and exile groups in France). When
point effectively evaded. the CNTwas reorganized in 1928 the FAI came to exert a dominating
One obvious error that the Platformists made was their overesti- influence on its orientation.
mation of the potential for winning over the majority of anarchists to While the FAI constituted the most revolutionary forces within
their position. Given the depth of their criticisms they should have the anarchist movement they were not united around any sort of
understood that at least initially they would only we able to attract a coherent program. Rather they were united in their opposition to any
minority of the anarchist movement. AGeneral Union of Anarchists sort of collaboration with the reformist forces. Politically the FAI was
united around the sort of program advocated in the Platform would not heterogeneous in the extreme including a wide range of anarchist ten-
be possible before an intense political struggle within the anarchist dencies as well as groups organized to promote vegetarianism,
movement, a struggle that the Platformists were not in a position to Esperanto (an artificial language created for purposes of international
win. Consequently, by tying their project to winning over the majori- communication), etc..
ty of anarchists they doomed it. In opposition to Malatesta who argued that the unions should be
The Platformists also failed to develop a coherent analysis of ideologically non-sectarian in order to attract the broadest participa-
imperialism and the profound influence that its global inequalities tion of the working class, the FAI declared itself in favor of explicitly
would have on the process of world revolution. Consequently their anarchist unions because “working-class unity is not possible.” The
political program and their understanding of the class struggle reads existence of widespread sympathy for anarchism among the Spanish
today as very simplistic. But their critique of the organizational fail- proletariat and peasantry made it possible to build an explicitly anar-
ings of the anarchist movement and the measures necessary to correct chist mass union like the CNT, but the very existence of the FAI point-
those failings has lost none of their resonance. Their organizational ed to the contradictions involved in such a union. Malatesta argued
principles are simple and common sensical. But they are a stake that the need to meet the daily needs of the members under the exist-
through the heart of anti-organizational thinking in anarchism. The ing system has a conservatizing influence on unions regardless of
intensely hostile response they generated is a profound testimony to their origins or assertions of radical aims. The experience of the CNT
the political irrelevance of much of the anarchist movement. prior to the founding of the FAI confirmed this position. In effect the
Tragically the Platformists were to have almost no influence on FAI constituted itself as an organization of the most advanced ele-
the Spanish anarchist movement. When the Spanish anarchists found ments that fought for (and won) revolutionary politics within the
themselves in a revolutionary situation they were considerably better CNT. Opponents of the FAI’s revolutionary orientation attacked the
positioned than their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to give the FAI for dominating the union. The FAI resisted this characterization
revolution a libertarian character. But in the end they failed for many of their role within the CNT and certainly non-FAI members were
of the same reasons. J. Manuel Molinas, Secretary of the Iberian often influential, but an honest assessment of the FAI must acknowl-
Anarchist Federation (FAI) in the early 1930s later wrote: “The plat- edge its leadership function within the Spanish anarchist movement.
form of Arshinov and other Russian anarchists had very little influ- While the FAI was undeniably composed of many of the most
ence on the movement in exile or within the country ... ‘The Platform’ committed revolutionary anarchist fighters in Spain they fundamen-
was an attempt to renew, to give greater character and capacity to the tally failed to cohere themselves around a program or strategy until it
international anarchist movement in light of the Russian Revolution ... was too late. Reading Juan Gomez Casas’Anarchist Organization,
Today, after our own experience, it seems to me that their effort was The History of the FAI (Black Rose, 1986, Montreal), one can not
not fully appreciated.” The Spanish Revolution offered the best help but be struck by this fact. Year in and year out the conferences
opportunity to carry the anarchist revolution to completion. The fail- and plenums of the FAI are dominated by discussions the most ele-
ure of the Spanish anarchists to learn the lessons of the Russian and mentary organizational matters. The political resolutions are agoniz-
Ukrainian experiences before it was too late is perhaps the single ingly vague and subject to the broadest possible range of interpreta-
greatest tragedy in the history of the anarchist movement. tions. When a revolutionary situation fell into their hands they were
utterly unprepared for the difficult choices involved.
THE FAI On July 19, 1936 the CNT carried out a revolutionary general
strike in response to an fascist military coup. They were joined in
The Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) was founded in the summer of varying degrees by the socialist union (the UGT) and the political par-
1927. Whereas the Platformists were the product of the experience of ties of the left. In Catalonia where the anarchists were dominant with-
defeat of the Russian and Ukrainian anarchists, the FAI arose in in the working class and among the peasants the CNT decisively
response to the burgeoning revolutionary potential of Spain and some smashed the military revolt, armed the workers and peasants, formed
of the contradictions within the Spanish anarchist movement. Up until revolutionary committees and organized militias to fight the fascists.
the formation of the FAI the main organizational form of the Spanish A similar pattern repeated itself, again in varying degrees, across
anarchist movement was the National Confederation of Labor (CNT). those parts of Spain where the fascists were unable to establish con-
The dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera had broken up the CNT trol.
Love &Rage Member Handbook • Page 7
In Catalonia the revolutionary upheaval was so complete and the the powerful revolutionary aspirations of the Spanish peasants and
anarchist predominance within it so beyond dispute that on July 20 workers created a political vacuum. One organization that attempted
Luis Companys, the President of the semi-autonomous government of to fill that space was the Friends of Durruti.
Catalonia (the Generalidad) summoned the leaders of the CNTand the One of the central issues in the Spanish Revolution was the
FAI and offered to resign. The leaders of the CNTand FAI declined attempt to incorporate the militias into a new regular Republican
claiming that they did not want to establish an “anarchist and army. Much of the impetus for this militarization came from the
Confederal dictatorship.” Communist Party, which by virtue of its connections with the Soviet
In this single moment we find distilled the historical anarchist Union, was prepared to dominate the command of such an army. The
abdication of political responsibility. The anarchist movement has no anarchist and POUM militias resisted this process in varying degrees.
reason to expect to be presented with a better opportunity to reorga- Ultimately most of the anarchist militias were either incorporated into
nize society on libertarian lines than existed on July 20, 1936. While the new army or broken up by it. One group that resisted militariza-
support for the CNTwas not universal, they clearly had the allegiance tion were the militias at the Gelsa front. Instead of joining the army
of the majority of the oppressed classes in Catalonia. They had creat- many of their members returned to Barcelona and joined with some
ed a situation of dual power with the capitalist state. The choice before other dissidents in the CNTto constitute themselves as the Friends of
them was not one between collaboration with the capitalist state and Durruti.
an anarchist dictatorship. It was between the revolutionary creation of The Friends of Durruti played a pivotal role in the May 1937
a federation of the popular committees and councils and collaboration. events in Barcelona, calling on the anarchist forces to maintain their
To take the first road would have required smashing the state not just barricades when the CNTleadership was preaching conciliation with
militarily (as they already had) but politically by overthrowing Luis the Communists. After these events the Friends of Durruti issued a
Companys and the Generalidad. Since the popular committees in pamphlet “Towards a Fresh Revolution” that analyzed the defeat of
Catalonia were largely initiated by the CNT’s defense committees the Spanish Revolution and put forward proposals for its regeneration.
established to prepare for the insurrection there is no reason such a Unlike anarchists today who see the Spanish militias as the model of
program could not have been carried out. Dual power is not an end in anarchist military organization the Friends of Durruti had seen them
itself, it is a condition under which an opportunity exists to smash the in action and proposed in opposition to either the Republican army or
old power and replace it with a new organization of society. Situations an exclusive reliance on the militias the revolutionary army:
of dual power are inherently unstable. Sooner or later the old power “With regard to the problem of the war, we back
or the new power will smash the other one. The consequence of the the idea of the army being under the absolute control of the
CNTand FAI’s false fear of being party to an “anarchist dictatorship” working class. Officers with their origins in the capitalist
was that they soon found themselves first under a dictatorship of the regime do not deserve the slightest trust from us. Desertions
petty bourgeoisie and the Communist Party and then under Franco. have been numerous and most of the disasters we have
The FAI’s failure to unite around a comprehensive analysis of encountered can be laid down to obvious betrayals by offi-
Spanish society and strategy for its revolutionary transformation cers. As to the army, we want a revolutionary one led exclu-
meant that they were unable to seize the revolutionary moment when sively by workers; and should any officer be retained, it
it presented itself. The workers and peasants were ahead of their lead- must be under the strictest supervision.”
ers and accomplished profound things in terms of collectivizing
industry and agriculture and reorganizing social life in the villages and The Friends of Durruti also proposed the creation of a Revolutionary
cities under their control. But they lacked the organization or collec- Junta to be democratically elected by all of the revolutionary working
tive political experience to navigate the complicated political situation class organizations that opposed further participation in the
that confronted them. The organization that was best positioned to Republican government. The precise mechanism for forming the
provide these things, the FAI, was unable to do so. Junta (a word which does not have the same authoritarian implications
It was only after the revolutionary moment had passed and the in Spanish as it does in English; all the CNTunions were governed by
Spanish state was reorganized with the generous assistance of juntas) varied in different statements of the Friends of Durruti, but the
Moscow that the FAI recognized the need to reorganize itself in accor- point should be emphasized that what they were proposing was a pop-
dance with its actual role. In July 1937 the FAI reorganized itself with ular democratic structure, not a party-state like the one established by
clear standards of membership based on agreement with a common the Bolsheviks in Russia. This is similar to the program for workers’
political orientation. The affinity groups were stripped of any “official and peasants councils, although not quite as good since it required
role in the new FAI organization” and vote by simple majority was working through the existing union structures. The Friends of Durruti
introduced to prevent small groups from obstructing the work of the also took some tentative steps to align themselves with anti-colonial
organization as a whole. But the new political statement of the FAI forces in Morocco. As troops stationed in Morocco constituted the
was again hopelessly vague and the organization had been fundamen- base for the fascist uprising, the question of support for Moroccan
tally compromised by their participation in the Republican govern- independence was a crucial one. This tentative anti-imperialism is
ment and their treacherous call for a cease-fire during the “May Days” indicative of the Friends of Durruti’s determination to confront the
in Barcelona two months earlier. weaknesses of anarchist theory.
THE FRIENDS OF DURRUTI CONCLUSION
The failure of the FAI to provide revolutionary leadership in spite of The Friends of Durruti continued to operate even after the ultimate
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defeat of the Republic by the fascists, but in the final analysis their ini-
tiative clearly came too late. Like the Mahknovchina before them,
they only came to understand the need for a different kind of revolu-
tionary anarchist organization as a result of bitter defeats. Their
abortive efforts to create such an organization did not get far enough
to offer us much guidance today. What they do provide, however, is a
desperately needed example of revolutionary anarchism confronting it
s errors head on and creating new forms in response to new condi-
tions.
The experiences in Ukraine and Spain demonstrate that in the
course of a revolution, a certain amount of centralization and repres-
sion of open counter-revolutionaries will be necessary. Of course anti-
authoritarians must consciously strive to keep such centralization and
repression down to the minimum level necessary and should deliber-
ately work to keep the communal organization as decentralized and
radically-democratic as possible. Exactly how to maintain this balance
is a matter of political judgment, but there should be no ambiguity in
our opposition to party-states.
One simple lesson from the experiences discussed here is that the
attempt to build a serious revolutionary anarchist organization will
inevitably encounter hostility from many quarters, including many
sincere anarchists. Only a minority of the most serious and committed
activists can be expected to join such an effort. And only in the con-
text of profound social upheaval will the importance of their extend-
ed period of organizational and political preparation become clear.
Only in the course of struggling to build such an organization on the
basis of coherent politics can we hope to collectively confront and
overcome the mistakes of the past.H
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